IIID Conversation with Gillian Harvey, 5 October 2023, 15:00 UTC

Gillian Harvey will discuss two projects designed to increase empathy and reduce stigma toward people who experience addiction.

Health communications about addiction

Gillian says “it’s important to engage communities in health system change, particularly for marginalized and equity seeking groups. I will also discuss what types of methods work well, but also what could be improved upon in using co-design”.

Gillian Harvey will discuss two projects designed to increase empathy and reduce stigma toward people who experience addiction. She used co-design methods to learn from lived experience and non-traditional knowledge forms; and she used community-based decision-making aimed at shared ownership of the solutions.

Exhibition with colourful hanging panels.

Introducing Gillian Harvey

Gillian is an Associate Professor in Design Studies, Department of Art & Design at the University of Alberta (Canada), where she teaches undergraduate students design theory, practice and research. She is Co-Director of the Design Health Research Innovation Lab (DHRIL) and a World Region Representation of the International Institute of Information Design (IIID).

Her research prioritizes information design, design for decision making and design in critical or emergency situations including technical administration of emergency overdose kits, patient safety education materials and pediatric resuscitation. She has worked with government, industry and the private sector developing materials that include projects that address systems concerns, and enhance broader healthcare processes.

IIID Conversation with Sigitas Gužauskas, 6 July 2023, 15:00 UTC

To enhance clarity, information design often simplifies complex real-world phenomena into basic visual representations. By adding an experiential layer to the dry data, designers can aim to captivate a wider audience and offer a broader range of interpretations.

Data humanisation

To enhance clarity, information design often simplifies complex real-world phenomena into basic visual representations.

While these graphics are clear, they may not always have the impact needed. Data often contains intriguing narratives and stories that, when uncovered, can be used to create a more engaging and versatile information experience for the audience.

By adding an experiential layer to the dry data, designers can aim to captivate a wider audience and offer a broader range of interpretations.

Introducing Sigitas Gužauskas

Sigitas is a practicing visual communication designer, a researcher, a lecturer and a member of the Lithuanian Design Association. Recently, he completed his doctoral thesis “Explanatory Strategies in Information Design” at Vilnius Academy of Arts.

His research interests focus mainly on information design, exploring images that explain. He designs packaging, exhibitions and infographics, and experiments with information, and data visualizing objects.

Sigitas’ most recent projects are exhibition design for the Energy and Technology Museum (2022), and the Museum of Applied Arts and Design (2023) in Vilnius, Lithuania. He publishes articles on design issues and participates in local and international exhibitions such as the art and designs biennial ‘Travelling Letters’, and the ENTER media festival in Lithuania.

IIID Conversation with Rui Caminha, 1 June 2023, 15:00 UTC

Rui Camilha introduces award-winning legal information design from Villa – Visual Law Studio, in Brazil.

Legal Design for Legal Efficiency

Villa is the leading company in Latin America specializing in Visual Law and Legal Design, recognized as the largest and most awarded in this field. Our main goal is to enhance legal communication, making it more efficient for the public and for businesses seeking transparent and accessible relationships with their consumers.

In this presentation, we are delighted to share two of the most iconic projects that mark our journey. We will explore the complete process of ideation, development, and the results achieved. The first project is the “Easy Contract for TIM,” a mobile telecommunications adhesion contract designed to transform store customer experience. We will discuss how we implemented Visual Law and Legal Design techniques in this contract, simplifying the legal content and making it more understandable and user-friendly for TIM’s customers.

The second project we will present is the “Visual Law and Plain Language Handbook,” created for the Court of Justice of Mato Grosso. This handbook was developed with the aim of teaching Brazilian judges the methodology of project creation using Visual Law and clear language. In addition to explaining how the handbook was developed, we will highlight how the implementation of these practices can encourage more effective communication between magistrates and the public, especially in complex legal cases.

During the presentation, we will explore the challenges faced during the development of these projects, as well as the benefits and results achieved. We will share valuable insights on how Visual Law and Legal Design can revolutionize legal communication, making it more accessible, understandable, and, above all, efficient.

Introducing Rui Caminha: Lawyer, digital entrepreneur, graduate from the University of São Paulo, currently pursuing a master’s degree at FGV-SP. Founder and CEO of Juristec+, co-founder, and director of Villa – Visual Law Studio. Legal Design lecturer, international presenter, with over 15 years dedicated to legal innovation, and pioneer in the development of technologies and solutions in legal data analytics, legal AI, analytics, and Visual Law.

IIID Conversation with Sheila Pontis, 4 May 2023, 15:00 UTC

Information designers know that they should create solutions that address users’ needs. But while some of us claim to do it all the time, in reality many find it hard to integrate this way of working into our daily practice.

A human-centered research clinic for information designers

Information designers know that they should create solutions that address users’ needs. We accept the need for human-centered research, and we promote it to our clients. But while some of us claim to do it all the time, in reality many find it hard to integrate this way of working into our daily practice – to find participants, to design studies, to identify what to ask, to interpret results.

Sheila Pontis, one of the foremost experts on human-centered research for information design, will introduce her own work, and answer your questions on how to bring research into practice. The session will be a dialogue, structured around your questions submitted in advance.

For example, you might ask: I’ve to create a visual explanation about quantum computing for children – how can I know where I should focus on or what concepts are harder for them to understand? I’ve developed icons for a multicultural venue – how can I be sure they’ll be understood? I’m working on information about a medical treatment but can’t get access to real patients – how can I work around this? How many people do I need to recruit to test a new app I’ve designed?

Originally from Argentina, Dr Sheila Pontis has degrees from the University of Buenos Aires (BA), the University of Barcelona (MA, MPhil), and London College of Communication, University of the Arts London (PhD). She is now based in the USA, where she teaches and researches at MIT, and is a partner at Sense Information Design, New York. Her research bridges and contributes to several domains, including creativity and well-being, information science, human-computer interaction, information design, sensemaking and cognitive science. She is also active as reviewer of several journals and conferences.

Sheila is the author of three books: Making Sense of Field Research: A Practical Guide for Information Designers (Routledge, 2018), Communicating Knowledge Visually: Will Burtin’s Scientific Approach to Information Design (RIT Press, 2021, co-authored with R. Roger Remington), and Information Design Unbound: Key Concepts and Skills for Making Sense in a Changing World (Bloomsbury, November 2023, co-authored with Michael Babwahsingh).

IIID Conversation with Karel van der Waarde, 6 April 2023, 15:00 UTC

Medicines information: Are we really enabling patients to take medicines?

Taking medicines is a stressful activity. Opening a cardboard box, reading a leaflet, handling tiny pills, checking the dosage and the time, and considering potential side-effects require the capacities of a strong, astute, and healthy adult. Several of these activities are fairly difficult, especially when our dexterity, eye-sight, and mental flexibility decreases.

Karel van der Waarde will show examples of medical information design in context. He will question their use and provide reasons from both industry and regulations why these situations change so slowly.

Karel van der Waarde studied graphic design in the Netherlands (The Design Academy, Eindhoven), and the UK (De Montfort University (Leicester), and Reading University).
He started in 1995 a design- research consultancy in Belgium. The company develops and tests patient information leaflets, instructions, forms, and protocols in both digital and analogue formats. Most of the projects are related to information about medicines for patients, doctors and pharmacists. (www.graphicdesign-research.com)
In 2023 he teaches at BA, MA, and PhD level at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Switzerland), and University of Hasselt (Belgium).
He is a board member of International Institute for Information Design (IIID, Vienna, Austria) and the International Plain Language Federation (IPLF), and editorial board member of Information Design Journal, Hyphen, She Ji, and Visible Language.

IIID Conversation with Stefania Passera, 2 March 2023, 15:00 UTC

“I have read and understood the terms and conditions” is the biggest lie on the internet – no one reads, and definitely no one understands (except the lawyers).

Legal Information Design: Towards user-friendly contracts

“I have read and understood the terms and conditions” is the biggest lie on the internet – no one reads, and definitely no one understands (except the lawyers).

When most of us hear “contracts”, we think of impenetrable walls of legalese envisioned to protect a party at the expense of the other. But there’s another way. Through information design, contracts can be transformed into tools that work better for business, for people, and ultimately for society.

Stefania Passera, a pioneer of contract design, will show examples of her work and discuss the impact of this new, multidisciplinary approach to contracts. Legal information design is a fast-growing marketplace for information design skills and this talk will introduce IIID members to one of its leading figures.

Stefania, founder of Passera Design, is an information designer specialized in contract design and simplification based in Helsinki, Finland. With 10+ years of experience in the field, she is considered a true legal design pioneer. She collaborates with World Commerce & Contracting as Contract Designer in Residence and as curator of the Contract Design Pattern Library.

She has served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Vaasa, Department of Business Law (Finland), and earned her doctoral degree from Aalto University (Espoo, Finland). Her research has been published internationally, and she is an in-demand speaker and lecturer on contract and legal design. Her impact as a legal design pioneer has been recognized with a European Women of Legal Tech 2020 award and a WorldCC Fellowship.

IIID Conversation with Maxwell Roberts, 2 February 2023, 15:00 UTC

We’re marking the 90 year anniversary of the London Underground network diagram with a talk by Maxwell Roberts, who is the pre-eminent expert on the diagram and author of several books on it.

Why Henry Beck’s 1933 London tube map design was such a resounding success

It’s exactly 90 years since the launch of Henry Beck’s 1933 London Underground network diagram, which has become an iconic example of information design . We’re marking this with a talk by Maxwell Roberts who is the pre-eminent expert on the diagram and author of several books on it.

Max says: “It was a remarkable work of elegant compromise, effortlessly balancing conflicting priorities and presenting passengers with a design that simplified reality in a useful way. In this talk I will highlight these priorities and consider recent findings in usability testing that show the importance of attending to them.”

Maxwell Roberts lectures in psychology at the University of Essex, UK, with BSc and PhD degrees from the University of Nottingham. His research interests have included reasoning and intelligence, but now focus on information design and, in particular, schematic maps, creating challenging designs and testing their usability and aesthetics. He has authored four books and several academic papers on this topic and co-chairs the Schematic Mapping Workshop. His personal web page is www.tubemapcentral.com.

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IIID Conversation with Rodrigo Ramírez (Chile), 12 January 2023, 14:00 UTC

Rodrigo Ramírez will talk about “Visual Tools: Information design as a way to manage crises and emergencies.”

Visual Tools: Information design as a way to manage crises and emergencies.

Rodrigo Ramírez specialises in information design for emergencies, including the immediate needs in an emergency as well as the communication and management of risk. He will discuss the Guemil icons project, with testing through participatory workshops in communities.

Rodrigo is Associate Professor at the School of Design, UC Chile (Diseño UC). He is also a researcher at the Chilean National Research Center for Integrated Disaster Management, CIGIDEN. He was design leader for the Guemil Icons project, an open source set of symbols for crises and emergencies (guemil.info). Rodrigo has an MA Information Design from Reading University, UK. His interests are typography and information design, crossing both practice and research. He has collaborated in information and type design research and designed for brands, public organizations, and publications.

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Conversation with Rupesh Vyas, 1 December 2022 at 1500 UTC

Public participation is crucial in the present-day context of increasing complex scenario of data-driven approaches in various domains. I will discuss the challenges and exploration of information design approaches …

Eliciting public participation through information design

Public participation is crucial in the present-day context of increasingly complex scenarios of data-driven approaches in various domains. I will discuss the challenges and exploration of information design approaches through case examples from my teaching and practice-based design research projects at Aalto University.

Case examples: Information design for Elections, Air Quality, Health, Public transport.

Rupesh Vyas is an associate professor at Aalto University, responsible for the information design focus area within the Visual Communication Design major. He is also leading the practice-based Design research projects in information design at the Department of Art and Media.

Rupesh teaches information design courses and is engaged in collaborative design research with many public sector organizations in Finland. He led the collaborative project with city of Helsinki to create an interactive visualisation of Air Quality data for eliciting public participation. He is the driving force behind the collaborative design research projects with FINNGEN for creating future tools of visualizing genetic data for scientific discoveries.

Rupesh is also involved in organizing the Visualizing Knowledge conference, the biennial conference held at Aalto University, focused on various topics of Information Design and Data Visualization, where student work, as well as ongoing research is presented along with talks by international experts.

Previously, he was a senior faculty at the National Institute of Design, India, responsible for developing and teaching information and interaction design research and education. He has contributed significantly to some of the major projects with national importance in India, which includes the Design for Census of India 2011, Design of Population Register, Design of Multipurpose National Identity Card and unifying Information and visual design standards for Driver’s License.

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IIID Conversations

As the name suggests, they are conversations as much as talks. The speakers make short presentations of their work or ideas, then the conversation will open out to include everyone.

IIID Conversations is a series of informal events. As the name suggests, they are conversations as much as talks. The speakers make short presentations of their work or ideas, then interview them and the conversation will open out to include everyone.

In 2021 we consulted our members on what they would like to see. Their answer was ‘community’ – most wanted to feel more connected to others in their profession, to gain insight about practice, and to gain new knowledge about the various different types of work information designers do.

IIID Conversations is free for IIID members, and €5 for non-members.

Coming up:

1 December at 1500 UTC

Rupesh Vyas Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland

5 January 2023 at 1500 UTC

Rodrigo Ramírez, Information Designer, Associate Professor at School of Design, UC Chile (Diseño UC).

Previous Conversations:

Carlos Rosa, IADE – Faculty of Design, Technology and Communication, Lisbon, Portugal: Moving Pictograms

Will Stahl-Timmins, Data Graphics Designer at The Britisch Medical Journal: A picture of health: Visualising medical information for doctors.

Rob Waller (Simplification Centre, UK), discussing the Information Design Summer School – how it works, who comes and how it links theory and practice through critiquing and practical projects.

Oliver Tomlinson (TDL Creative, UK). Oliver uses information design and visualisation in the construction industry, and will talk about the contribution information graphics makes to successful bid documents.

Alex Tyers (Transmission Design, Australia). Alex’s practice includes financial information, medicines information, forms and other complex information.

Conversation with Carlos Rosa, 3 November 2022 at 1500 UTC

The introduction of motion is an important contribution to facilitate the interpretation of pictograms and to enable them to develop in other ways,

Moving Pictograms

The introduction of motion is an important contribution to facilitate the interpretation of pictograms and to enable them to develop in other ways, for example, to encourage civic behaviour, enhance the content of a message and to create emotional ties.

Carlos Rosa, with colleague Maria Diaz, won an IIID Award in 2020 for their fascinating work on moving pictograms. For years we’ve assumed pictograms are static, but digital channels allow them to move. The introduction of motion makes pictograms easier to interpret, and also encourages compliance with their message, and creates emotional ties. Carlos will present this project, and data that demonstrates significant improvements in comprehension.

Carlos Rosa is an independent designer, researcher, and design professor. He is Director of IADE, the largest and most reputed creative school in Portugal. His research project explores the knowledge in the exercise of design applied to universal communication systems. He has received a Portuguese Design Award, and he was described as “Design Icon” by Computer Arts magazine. Carlos writes and illustrates regularly for Portuguese newspapers. He is father of Simão and Joana, has written a book and has also planted a tree!
Carlos Rosa Design

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Conversation with Will Stahl-Timmins, 6 October 2022 at 1500 UTC

At the BMJ we use infographics and data visualisations to convey the information we publish to busy health professionals in an efficient and engaging way.

A picture of health: Visualising medical information for doctors

At The BMJ (British Medical Journal) we use infographics and data visualisations to convey the information we publish to busy health professionals in an efficient and engaging way. In my talk I’ll introduce the kinds of graphics we make, including full page “visual summaries”, interactive graphics, and visual abstracts.

Grid of 16 colourful Infographics, none of them are readable in detail.

Registration link to be updated shortly

Will Stahl-Timmins is Data Graphics Designer at The BMJ. His background is in graphic design. He holds a PhD in the use of information graphics in health technology assessment from Exeter Medical School. Outside work, he spends a lot of time playing with his daughter (currently age 2), cooking, gardening, and playing board games with anyone who he can get to the table.

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Conversation with Alex Tyers, 3 May 2022 at 1300 UTC

Information design for financial communications

The next in our series of IIID Conversations is with Alex Tyers of Transmission Design, one of Australia’s leading information designers. With over 20 years experience of every variety of information design, he is an expert in instructional design, forms, customer communications and plain language.

During this session I will be talking about information design for financial communications. Most people I talk to express surprise that a bank statement, form or insurance letter is even designed at all, maybe because they are often so bad. However, I can confirm that – yes – financial communication design is a thing. I will be discussing how financial comms can be improved, and what can hold this back. I will be showing examples from projects I have worked on for financial organisations and highlighting some of the things I have learned. I look forward to chatting to you soon.

Registration

Alex Tyers is one of Australia’s leading information designers. With over 20 years experience of every variety of information design, he is an expert in instructional design, forms, customer communications and plain language.

Transmission Design

Conversation with Oliver Tomlinson, 26 April 2022 at 1300 UTC

The hidden graphics

Oliver will reflect on his experience of creating diagrams for large corporate bids and tenders. He will discuss how business ‘authors’ work with his team of information designers, creating diagrams to work alongside text in a hidden world of huge commercial contracts.

He will also reflect on the diagrams produced behind the closed doors of businesses, often created by non-designers but a key element in explaining processes, theories, research and initiatives.

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Oliver Tomlinson is the CEO and founder of TDL-Creative, a design consultancy based in London that specialises in information design. TDL-Creative was set up in 2011 and is now recognised as an industry-leading agency in bid design and diagramming, producing designs for some of the largest procurement opportunities in the UK. Oliver works predominantly in Powys, Wales, dividing his time between family, diagramming, design workshops and falconry.